This weekend marked the biggest game of the football season, the Super Bowl. The Steelers came out on top of the game and the commercials were decent this year as well. CEA says that the game drove 2.6 million HDTV sales as fans geared up to watch the big game in HD resolution.

Despite the economy, the CEA says that 2009 will be a record year for HDTV sales with 29.8 million HDTVs expected to ship. In 2008, 26.8 million HDTVs shipped and one of the things that have pushed sales of HDTVs in 2009 is that the average wholesale price has fallen by 50% to $849 this year.

Plasma TVs are expected to make up only 15% of total sales in 2009. That is likely due to the significantly less plasma sets on the market compared to LCD units. I much prefer plasma, as the TVs tend to be brighter and offer better contrast than comparable LCD TVs.

CEA